Rising phoenix-like from the ashes
of 9/11, center neck-and neck with Willis Tower

The single One World Trade Center, being built to replace the
twin towers destroyed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has risen
Phoenix-like from the ashes to reclaim its title of New York City's
tallest skyscraper. Workers will build steel columns that will make
its unfinished skeleton a little over 1,250 feet high, pushing it
enough over the roof of the observation deck on the Empire State
Building.

Experts and architects have long disagreed about where to stop
measuring super-tall buildings outfitted with masts, spires and
antennas that extend far above the roof.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online):
Construction is still being added to the floors to the so-called
"Freedom Tower." The center will not reach its full height for
at least another year. At that time it will likely be declared
the tallest building in the U.S., and third tallest in the
world.

Exactitude on the tallest building, however, resides in the
judgment of the beholder. The sticking point involves the
408-foot-tall needle that will sit on the tower's roof. With the
needle, that World Trade Center is back on top -- otherwise, it
will have to settle for No. 2, after the Willis Tower in
Chicago.

"Height is complicated," Nathaniel Hollister, a spokesman for
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats says.

Experts and architects have long disagreed about where to stop
measuring super-tall buildings outfitted with masts, spires and
antennas that extend far above the roof.

The Empire State Building, measured from the sidewalk to the tip
of its needle-like antenna, the granddaddy of all super-tall
skyscrapers actually stands 1,454 feet high, well above the mark
being surpassed by One World Trade Center.

Some maintain that antennas shouldn't count when determining
building height. They say that an antenna is more like furniture
than a piece of architecture. An antenna can be attached or
removed. The Empire State Building didn't even get its
distinctive antenna until 1952.

Excluding the antenna brings the Empire State Building's total
height to 1,250 feet, still high enough to make the skyscraper
the worlds tallest from 1931 until 1972.

The Empire State seems to tower over the second tallest
completed building in New York, the Bank of America Tower.
Experts argue that the thin mast on top of the Bank of America
building isn't an antenna, but a decorative spire.

Unlike antennas, record-keepers like spires. It's a tradition
that harkens back to a time when the tallest buildings in many
European cities were cathedrals. Groups like the Council on Tall
Buildings, and Emporis, a building data provider in Germany,
both count spires when measuring the total height of a building,
even if that spire happens to look exactly like an antenna.

Without a spire, the One World Trade Center would still be
smaller than the Willis Tower in Chicago, formerly known as the
Sears Tower, which tops out at 1,451 feet -- not including its
own antennas.